


Orion Rising

by Regionalpancake



Category: Star Trek: Picard
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, Protective Raffi, Someone please let these two ladies be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23480641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Regionalpancake/pseuds/Regionalpancake
Summary: “Poor Queen Annika, 6 years old and all she got for her birthday was assimilated!”The Emergency Hospitality Hologram tries to throw a birthday party for Seven....Raffi picks up the pieces.
Relationships: Raffi Musiker/Seven of Nine
Comments: 24
Kudos: 106





	Orion Rising

**Author's Note:**

> CW: There's a very light mention of Seven and her parents' assimilation phrased as parents' death. Barely there but mentioning just in case.

“It is Suloth, the lover,” said Elnor, pointing at the star chart on Seven’s PADD.

Seven was only trying to distract herself with astrometric data and didn’t mind the intrusion from the young Romulan. The crew of the La Sirena were gathered in the mess, ushered there earlier by the ever enthusiastic Emergency Hospitality Hologram.

Seven looked at the collection of stars on the PADD, “In some Earth cultures those stars form the constellation of Orion.”

“Does he have a mate?” Elnor questioned.

“No, Orion is the hunter.”

“Maybe that’s what he’s hunting for?” Elnor mused and looked back down at the sword he was carefully sharpening.

“Suloth walks across the sky each night to find his lover.”

Seven put the PADD down “And does he find them?”

“Nope!” Rios laughed “He gets killed and eaten every night by a fucking Ra’tar!”

“Only in the North!” Elnor protested, “Our version says he walks across the world in search of his lover and his happiness creates the sunrise.”

“Happiness, is it?” Rios said with a wicked grin.

“Cris, knock it off!” Raffi chuckled, playfully swatting him on the arm.

“Happy birthday to you!” the Emergency Hospitality Hologram crooned, walking down the metal stairs towards the assembled crew, a party hat perched on top of his immaculately styled hair “Happy birthday to yoooou,”

“A surprise celebration?” Elnor’s face lit up with childlike glee, he sheathed his sword and watched the hologram closely “I feel excited!”

“Happy birthday dear Seven.” The EHH reached bottom of the stairs, holding out a large plate covered in a silver dome.

“Oh, I had no idea!” Jurati cooed, her hand squeezing Sevens arm, not noticing the rising tension in the xB’s shoulders. “Happy birthday!”

Seven stood as Mister Hospitality’s singing continued, she paused, eyes darting to the stairs, her jaw muscles jumping.

“Happy birthday to…”

The Ranger strode forward, expression blank, ocular implant plotting the quickest route out. Pushing past the EHH with an implant laced hand, she took the metal stairs two at a time. Her eyes started to sting and she quickly ducked her head, before disappearing out of sight.

“Seven?” Raffi shouted after her, “Seven!”

“...you.” The EHH finished lamely.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rios barked.

“My job.”

“This stupid hologram.” Rios rolled his eyes.

“Well there’s no need to be rude...”

“Rude? Rude?!” Raffi scoffed, incredulous, turning back from the stairs.

“Yes, rude!! At least someone around here should make a little bit of an effort every now and then!” The EHH huffed defiantly.

“She was assimilated on her birthday, you photonic fuck up!” Raffi rounded on him and jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “How about you search your subroutines for the appropriate hospitality protocol for that one? Hmm? Or ‘anniversary of violent parental death’? Is cake on the list?! How about ‘Life altering physical trauma’, got a party hat for that one too?” She twanged the holographic elastic around the EHHs chin, sucking on her vape and glaring.

“La Sirena’s data set on the crew is incomplete, I…”

“You what?”

“Improvised?”

The Ops officer pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“Just… do something useful.”

Raffi reached in her pocket and pulled out a battered looking isolinear chip and slid it into the EHHs blazer pocket.

“Load this into the holomatrix. And, I don’t know, deactivate yourself for the day? Better yet, write 300 times on your PADD ‘I will not traumatise my crew with ill timed... whatever this is” Raffi waved her hand dismissively at the covered plate the EHH was holding.

“Strawberry cheesecake?” he said taking the lid off with a flourish. A fizzing, pink candle sparked into life.

“You’re kidding me.” she said dryly.

“Based on her last 483 replicator requests; cross referencing flavour and texture profiles and taking into account the kind of celebration...this seemed the most appropriate choice.” They all watched silent as the sparkler candle fizzled pathetically out.

“It was this or bourbon, and I couldn’t get the candle to stay on the bottle.” The EHH explained.

Cris and Raffi exchanged a mutual look of disbelief.

“The celebration is cancelled, then?” Elnor questioned, deflated.

“Why do I always need fix everything round here?” Raffi set off up the stairs in the direction of crew quarters.

Agnes sheepishly broke the silence around the table.

“Does... does anyone mind if I eat the cheesecake?”

* * *

“Seven? Seven,” She paused outside of the Rangers door, listening. “The EHH is a fuck up, I’m so sorry.”

No answer.

“Listen…I have a holo you might like? It’s a bar I used to go to back in the old days. Wanna join me? It’s quiet… peaceful… might be a nice change?”

No answer.

“I brought bourbon.” She leaned against the edge of door, swishing the liquor around the bottle. “Swiped it from JL’s quarters. It’s proper stuff. Didn’t seem like the time for synthehol.”

The door hissed open, the xB stepped out. Raffi pretended not to notice her beautiful face looked faintly tear stained.

Seven cocked her head. “Is there ever really a time for synthehol?”

* * *

The holodeck doors opened into a small lakeside bar. It was after hours, the upturned bar stools were silhouetted against the windows, legs like a forest, slicing the reflection on the water into narrow strips. Double doors at the back opened onto a wooden deck and a pier stretching out into a pine edged mountain lake. The evening summer sky reflected in the calm stretch of water. The glowing remains of a log fire smoked lazily in the grate.

“Welcome to Raffi’s.”

Behind them the metal door melted into the illusion. With a gentle cascade of photons the clinical grey alloy was replaced with well worn wood.

“Technically it’s a scan of “Lani’s Lakehouse”, up in BC, but I made a few edits so I think I’m allowed to rename the place.”

“Why do you have a holo of a closed bar?” Seven walked around. She held her hands clasped behind her back, old habits die hard.

“Not importing the people saves on the photonic output which conserves power. Not a bad idea when running it on a ship like this. Cris gets grumpy if I overload the buffer.” Raffi walked behind the bar, running her hand along the dark wooden surface, polished smooth with age. She leant down to grab two glasses from under the bar.

“But mostly, I just like the peace and quiet.”

Seven glanced at the pool table in the corner, it looked like people had abandoned it part way through a game, balls scattered into constellations. Her ocular implant, picking out patterns as usual, found and joined the dots of Orion.

Having retrieved the glasses Raffi nodded at the open doors.

“Come on, the views good, I wrote it myself.”

Following Raffi past the pool table Seven paused to nudge the cueball, with a satisfying click she knocked Orion’s sword from its belt and his knee into the corner pocket.

Outside the evening was cool and quiet. The water lapping up to the pier and the faint sound of birds moving through the trees creating a gentle ambience.

“I always loved it by the water.” Raffi sighed “A friend of mine at the academy had family up here. We’d teleport over after class. I used to bring my “Command and Ethics” books down here to study.”

With the glasses pinched in one hand and the bottle in the other, Raffi carefully eased herself down to sit on the end of the pier. Seven joined her, leaning back on her hands, briefly noticing how close her fingers were to the Raffi’s. Her thought was interrupted as a disheveled mass of white feathers floated past. An upside down swan paddled passed, it’s pair of orange legs lazily circling through thin air, and it’s long neck peering around underwater, apparently unfazed.

“Right. OK, so I’m not the greatest at editing holos.” She laughed. “Computer; remove swan.”

The upside down swan vanished. Raffi uncorked the bourbon, the gentle gurgle of the pour mixed with the water catching the legs of the pier.

“Cheers!” They clinked glasses. Raffi thought of adding ‘happy birthday’ and immediately thought better of it.

“Cheers.” Seven replied, she took a sip and raised an eyebrow as the bourbon slid down, warming her throat.

“Yeah, JL always has the good stuff.” Raffi laughed, Seeing Seven’s reaction. “That man is used to the finer things in life.”

A wading bird strode across a log at the edge of the water. It paused, eyes keenly tracking a small fish.

Raffi looked at the xB, eyes trailing over the metal of her hand as Seven absent mindedly tapped on the cut glass of the tumbler.

“So do you normally mark your birthday at all, or is that not your thing?” Raffi questioned, swirling her bourbon round the glass. The colours of the liquid fluctuated from gold to deep amber as it moved. She lifted it to full lips taking a sip.

“I’m normally too busy to notice until after I’ve missed it.” Seven swallowed the rest of her drink “Which works for me. It’s not a day I particularly enjoy dwelling on. I prefer being distracted. Plenty of time for that with the Rangers. I think maybe last year I was breaking out of a prison on Nelvana III?” Seven refilled their glasses.

“The year before I was stabbed.” She continued matter-of-factly.

“What?!” Raffi’s expression was priceless.

“Only slightly stabbed.” Seven added, smirking.

Before Raffi could ask more they were both distracted by the wading bird. It struck out at its prey, beak darting into the water to capture the fish. There was a brief second where it seemed as if an overlay of the same bird’s head flashed out of thin air and grabbed the neck of the original wader. As the bird drew back it somehow pulled itself out of the water, and it started to spiral and glitch. Caught in a squawking, splashing loop.

“For fuck’s sake.” Raffi sighed.

Seven suppressed a laugh, feeling lighter than she had all day.

“Computer,” the OPS officer groaned “Remove any wildlife previously edited by Raffi Musiker.”

With a faint flicker of blue light the wader vanished, along with a fish, which had been swimming backwards under the pier.

“OK so I’m not great at wildlife,” Raffi shrugged, smiling “I think I did a pretty good job on the sky though.”

Behind the distant snow-dusted mountains the sun was setting. The lake, disturbed only by the lightest summer breeze, held a mirror up to the gold edged clouds. A cluster of pine trees, huddled together on a small island, trailed their long shadows into the water. Seven’s gaze drifted down Raffi’s figure, skimming across her legs where they dipped over the edge of the pier, gently swinging.

“Wait for it.” Raffi smiled, expectantly staring at the horizon. “This cloud’s a good one; aaaand now.”

The light swelled, golden, breaking past a cloud, the beauty of the coded image lost on Seven, as her eyes hadn’t moved from Raffi. Warm light bathed them, picking out the lightest tones in Raffi’s halo of curls, her brown eyes flecked with amber in the sunset.

“It is a beautiful view.” Mused Seven, watching the golden sunlight flare across Raffi’s skin, curving round the edge of the officer’s bare shoulders before fading behind the mountains.

“Thanks! I based the refractive index for the clouds on ones from...”

Raffi glanced and the woman beside her, realising what Seven meant, she laughed awkwardly at the attention. The breeze picked up, and goosebumps ran down Raffi’s arms, causing a shudder to run through her.

“Here.” The Ranger shrugged off her worn leather jacket, and placed it around the other woman’s shoulders. Raffi inhaled, Seven’s warm scent catching her attention. Seven adjusted the lapels, taking her time, enjoying in the sight of Raffi’s sleek frame

“Suits you.”

Was this happening? Thoughts whirled in Raffi’s head. Did Seven mean what Raffi thought she did? Had she misreading something? Wait. How long had she been thinking for? Raffi’s eyes strayed down to Seven’s to lips and back to meet her gaze, unsure.

Seven smoothed the shoulders of the jacket and pushed a stray curl back behind Raffi’s ear, letting her fingers trace a path down the soft skin of her neck.

God, it had been a long time since…

Raffi could barely hear the sound of the water over the thrum of her own heart leaping in her chest. The Ranger gently tilted Raffi’s chin and closed the distance between them. Their lips brushed, tentatively at first then with increasing need as Raffi was swept up in the wonder of kissing this fierce, strong, broken women.

Raffi wasn’t sure how long they’d been there. It didn’t matter. Her hand ran through Seven’s hair, a faint moan escaping the blonde’s lips. Raffi, emboldened by the sound, lay a trail of slow insistent kisses down her neck.

“This was surprisingly a good birthday.” Seven sighed.

“I’m glad,” Raffi replied, punctuating the statement with a lingering kiss.

“If you like, we could always stick around and see what sunrise looks like?” Raffi felt the words escape before she could second guess herself.

Seven’s reply came in the form of a kiss, and then another and more.

The pale dusk light faded and gave way to the photonic vault of night above them. A thousand holographic stars gleaming into view. Above them, the constellation of Orion rising, setting out on his hunt.


End file.
